Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting what causes a zetec headgasket to blow???

I recently blew the headgasket on my 96 mtx zetec but I'd like to know why before I reassemble everything. Here are a few points to my confusion.
1. I had plenty of fluid in the resevoir before hand so lack of fluid isnt the answer.
2. On my ride home(20mins) the heat never came on and worked(made me think a stuck thermo) the car died at the end of this 20 min trip.
3. If I dont consult the problem before reassembling whats to say I wont blow it again very soon??
thanks guys,

I think the number one cause of zetec head gasket lossage is overheating. That's apparently what happened to mine.......

...or maybe not -- in some ways, it looks like my engine lost coolant through the gasket first, and then overheated.

It doesn't help that the surfaces that mate with the gasket are sometimes sloppily machined. Mine were...

I though you understood it overheated.

Since it happened suddenly, it either:

had the water pump fail (check it)

or

Lost coolant

or

Started to freeze up

The thermostat would not cause a loss of inside heat.
If it was really cold when it happened maybe you didn't have enough atifreeze and the coolant turned to slush.

When you get it back together keep a close eye on it.

Originally posted by 96zetec:

---

2. On my ride home(20mins) the heat never came on and worked(made me think a stuck thermo) the car died at the end of this 20 min trip.

---

This statement leads me to believe your H2O pump died...loss of heat in the cabin indicates lack of coolent flow through the heater core...loss of coolent flow leads to over-heating which leads to a warped head = blown gasket = big $$$$...just my $0.02 worth.

Agree with Art on this one. Sorry.

Engines with iron block/aluminum heads like zetec are more prone to head gasket problems (related to overheating) than all aluminum or all iron because of the different metal expansion properties on either side of the gasket creating shearing forces.

Put a new rad cap on. I fixed a GM recently the cap was duff and allowed the coolant to boil in the back of the head and blew the head gasket.

do zetecs have radiator caps? i would really like to know where it is if they do. then i could do my own coolant flush, but i don't like the other methods of doing it.

Yeah, it's that black plastic cap on the reserve tank.

that's not a radiator cap, that's the reserve tank cap. i want to know if there is a true RADIATOR cap.